Short Answer Questions

1. How did Leon's mother, Chanah, obtain food for her family after Moshe was taken away?

2. In which of the following fun childhood activities did Leon participate in Chapter 1?

3. Which aspect of the Sabbath did Leon particularly enjoy?

4. Why was Tsalig deported in Chapter 4?

5. Who did Leon make friends with in the ghetto?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Leon enjoy city life more than his mother, as shown in Chapter 2?

2. In Chapter 4, what was the significance of the following phrase: "If this is the worst that happens"?

3. In Chapter 5, what did Mr. Luftig's pipe collection symbolize to him?

4. Why was it a relief for Leon when, in Chapter 1, Hershel moved with his father to Kraków?

5. In Chapter 2, why might Leon have felt more nervous excitement than fear while his family and community made emergency plans and preparations for the possibility of war?

6. What does it say about Tsalig in Chapter 5 that he refuses to get off the train to deport him because Miriam cannot also go with Schindler?

7. As discussed in Chapter 1, which aspects of daily life for Leon and his family then, in the 1930s, were different from daily life today?

8. In Chapter 4, what was the importance of Leon's father's Bescheinigung?

9. In Chapter 3, how is Leon's father affected by his beating and imprisonment?

10. In Chapter 3, after Leon is no longer allowed to attend school because he is Jewish, what feelings does this cause him to have?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Do you think it's possible that something like the Holocaust could happen now? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

What are some reasons that Leon might obsess about being shot with the last bullet of the war?

Essay Topic 3

Many of the scenes in The Boy on the Wooden Box were thought-provoking. Which event or scene in the book really made you think or changed your perspective on something? Which scene was it? How did it affect you?